Portrait of a friend

Michiel de Brieder · November 27, 2004

Hey DGrin,

I've taken some shots today of a friend of mine and her boyfriend. We also took some portraits, just for fun. I'd like to share a portrait with you that I really like (the only photo processed from the session besides creating proofs, as of yet)

I hope you like it, and please throw me your constructive criticism :flush if you want to! (it is a bit soft because of pbase, the picture is actually nice and sharp on the eyes and lips and in between)
Enjoy your weekend!

[edit]
Additional note: I've uploaded a B/W version because my friend liked that better

the colour version is still visible down here somewhere :wink
[/edit]

Tim Kirkwood · November 27, 2004

Nice Mike. Looks like you had a good time.

Tim

Andy · November 27, 2004

michiel,

i recall another portrait of this lovely lady - one that we did some post/cropping on, eh what?

nice work

andy

DJ-S1 · November 27, 2004

Looks very good, nice work!

I am fooling with some portrait Photoshop stuff, and nice portraits like this are fun for me to play with. Hope you don't mind, I don't have many portraits of my own to use. I know some folks don't like them too smoothed out, what do you think?

Original.................................................... Fooled with...

pathfinder · November 27, 2004

DJ-S1 wrote:

Looks very good, nice work!

I am fooling with some portrait Photoshop stuff, and nice portraits like this are fun for me to play with. Hope you don't mind, I don't have many portraits of my own to use. I know some folks don't like them too smoothed out, what do you think?

Original.................................................... Fooled with...

You beat me to it DJ-S1. I thought the image was an excellent place to start a discussion of post processing for portrait enhancement. You smoothed out the lines in her forhead and under her eyes and at the side of her mouth. I think you made some nice improvements. Portraits of lovely young women do not need to be overly sharp. And this is a lovely portrait.

Michiel de Brieder · November 28, 2004

Hi Andy,

andy wrote:

i recall another portrait of this lovely lady - one that we did some post/cropping on, eh what?

Thanks for the compliment

but it is another lady

I'm trying to be more Yehuda and get me some more beauty to photograph
Enjoy your sunday Andy!

Michiel de Brieder · November 28, 2004

to Pathfinder and DJ
Hi guys,

nice of you to chime in! Thanks for the compliment, to start off with, also on behalf of my friend

You did some nice work on post processing, and you are always allowed to use my photos for fooling around!
As for the changes: you did a very food job in producing a smooth portrait! I'll have to discuss it with my friend if she wants her portrait to be smooth, because she's more into portraits 'as-is' if you get my meaning

that's why I left the lines that could have been cleaned up, untouched.
Thank you for taking the time to show me a different interpretation of the portrait, it is much appreciated! (I'll have a take on it myself later on

)
Enjoy your sunday!

Michiel de Brieder · November 28, 2004

Changing the photo
Hello Dgrinners,

I've had to change the photo due to dissatisfaction of the model

she wanted a B/W version, so she got it. It might be that you see the B/W replacement instead of the colour version that previous posters have worked on. I took their words in consideration and decided to make the B/W softfocus (except for eyes and lips) So I'd like to thank DJ again for reminding me of softening the portrait!

Ciao!

photocat · November 28, 2004

With all respect for the fiddling of DJ, but I like the original version more. She looks more real... We women all know that you can't have skin like that unless you are a loreal model... and 17 years of age.

Michiel, I love also portraits to be honest... who needs the smoothing out?
Why do they call it enhancement? When all the life is taken out of a face?
Sorry, will get off my soapbox...

Still a nice job DJ and Michiel

Thiago Sigrist · November 30, 2004

Hey Michiel!
How nice to find you here too! :-)

First of all, I must say you got a lovely portrait here. I like your B&W conversion, it works great!

Regarding the softness, it's just as you said: the eyes & lips look sharp, while the skin is smooth because of the soft look. If you had made it just a little softer, I think it would have been too much. So, nice job on this one too.

I also think it's very interesting that your model (especially the hair) looks like a girl I've photographed a couple months ago... :-)

Anyways... Great shot! Thanks for sharing!

Take care!

-- thiago

Michiel de Brieder · December 1, 2004

thanks photocat!

photocat wrote:

Michiel, I love also portraits to be honest... who needs the smoothing out? Why do they call it enhancement? When all the life is taken out of a face?

I'll take you on a step further

I'd rather see women without make-up, oh well, in MY perfect world....

Thanks for stopping by and commenting!

Michiel de Brieder · December 1, 2004

, a confession

Thiago Sigrist wrote:

Regarding the softness, it's just as you said: the eyes & lips look sharp, while the skin is smooth because of the soft look. If you had made it just a little softer, I think it would have been too much. So, nice job on this one too.

I've done some REALLY agressive gaussian on the skin, like, 5.6 or something

I don't think it could have been much softer. Good to see it works out

I also think it's very interesting that your model (especially the hair) looks like a girl I've photographed a couple months ago... :-)

Hey, cool, have you got a link to the images???
Thanks for the warm compliments Thiago!

yvonne · December 1, 2004

I don't usually do that kind of tinkering with my photos, but my dad's not happy that my gran's photos have so many lines in (she's a very wrinkly lady, not suprising at 87!).

Can I ask what funtion you use to do that smoothing, please? Might have a go on gran!

Michiel de Brieder · December 1, 2004

Sure, no problem Yvonne:

yvonne wrote:

Can I ask what funtion you use to do that smoothing, please? Might have a go on gran!

I am using Photoshop CS to create the effect. Here are the steps I took:
1. Open image

2. create a duplicate from the background and use a gaussion blur (4 to 7... play a bit with it)
3. add a layer mask to the blurred layer (reveal all)
4. paint over the layer mask to remove the blur from the eyes and lips
5. If you want to sharpen up the eyes and mouth, create another layer from the background an use either High Pass (soft light modus) or USM to sharpen.
6. if you have taken step 5: add a layer mask to the sharpening layer, hide all, and paint the eyes and mouth to show the sharpening layer on those areas
6. If you're doing B/W then take a channel mixer to convert the image (my favourite way!) and pump the greens, lower the reds (this is how I prefer to do a B/W conversion, YMMV)
7. If converted to B/W append an adjustment layer of selective colours for the blacks.
8. Perhaps a slight curves adjustment layer wll finish the job if you find the result not entirely satisfactory (In B/W I usually stay away from curves)

Well, that's about it. I hope I was clear, and if you need more help, just let me know!! If you send me the photo I can do some editing in photoshop and give you the PSD.
Ciao!

ginger_55 · December 1, 2004

Michiel,

that was great. I am glad I just happened upon the info, very precise, I hope.
You did say what the layer masks were called, that is so helpful. I am going to print it out and put it with other stuff in Kelby's book.

ginger

Michiel de Brieder · December 1, 2004

Hey Ginger, thanks for the compliment

ginger_55 wrote:

Michiel,

that was great. I am glad I just happened upon the info, very precise, I hope.
You did say what the layer masks were called, that is so helpful. I am going to print it out and put it with other stuff in Kelby's book.

ginger

If there's any trouble in the sequence that you might not understand just holler and I'll be happy to explain

if it's going into a book it's gotta be right, neh?

Cheers!

yvonne · December 2, 2004

Michiel de Brieder wrote:

I am using Photoshop CS to create the effect. Here are the steps I took:
1. Open image
2. create a duplicate from the background and use a gaussion blur (4 to 7... play a bit with it)
3. add a layer mask to the blurred layer (reveal all)
4. paint over the layer mask to remove the blur from the eyes and lips
5. If you want to sharpen up the eyes and mouth, create another layer from the background an use either High Pass (soft light modus) or USM to sharpen.
6. if you have taken step 5: add a layer mask to the sharpening layer, hide all, and paint the eyes and mouth to show the sharpening layer on those areas
6. If you're doing B/W then take a channel mixer to convert the image (my favourite way!) and pump the greens, lower the reds (this is how I prefer to do a B/W conversion, YMMV)
7. If converted to B/W append an adjustment layer of selective colours for the blacks.
8. Perhaps a slight curves adjustment layer wll finish the job if you find the result not entirely satisfactory (In B/W I usually stay away from curves)

Well, that's about it. I hope I was clear, and if you need more help, just let me know!! If you send me the photo I can do some editing in photoshop and give you the PSD.
Ciao!

thanks very much. I'll give that a go this weekend.

Thiago Sigrist · December 3, 2004

Similar hair?
Hi Michiel!

Michiel de Brieder wrote:

Hey, cool, have you got a link to the images???

Perhaps you remember this photo, it's the one that sold me on the ISO 1600 thing, take a look:

I think I made another version of it, with different processing, but can't find it right now...

Take care!

-- thiago

wxwax · December 3, 2004

Excellent thread.

snapapple · December 4, 2004

Beautiful portrait...
Michiel,
I love the black and white. Personally, I like smooth portraits. I like to see the picture as the "ideal" image of the person. You can see flaws in real life, why be reminded of them in a photograph. When you see a person in real life, their personality distracts you from any flaws and you don't notice them. But, in a portrait, you are almost looking at the person under a magnifying glass. The little flaws can distract you from the beauty that you know is there. Well, that's my pitch for retouching.

Thanks for the tutorial. I am not good with layers. All help is appreciated. I don't have PS CS yet. (only Elements) Maybe Santa will bring it for Christmas.

Portrait of a friend

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